In die stille agterkamer

A dozen or so paintings by the little-known Dutch artist Jan Mankes (1889–1920) appear here in colour, each facing an Afrikaans poem, with a Dutch version added for readers who want it. Published as a pair with a book on Adriaen Coorte, the poems imagine the instant a painting might have begun, look closely at how it was made, and place the painter in his time and among his ideas about art, so that poet and reader stand close beside him as he works. The small, modest things he painted with such devotion are handled again with care in words and made to reveal something, and pictures and poems alike become pauses for quiet thought in a restless age.

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About the book

Form

Poetry

Length

68 pages in the original

First published

2018 by Human & Rousseau

Author's age

64 when first published

ISBN

9780798176545 (original)